Students majoring in interior space design boost small entrepreneurs in Osa

35 tourist entrepreneurs received support in the design of their ventures as a part of the project “Caminos de Osa”

Students majoring in the career of interior space design at VERITAS University, career accredited by SINAES since 2008, helped 35 entrepreneurs in the Osa Peninsula through a program called “Caminos de Osa”, students proposed in areas like lightening, infrastructure, conditioning and organization so that the small business owners could get the certification from the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo (ICT).

Ylenda Madriz is a Student from Universidad VERITAS who is now participating in this project. She is going to be helping the entrepreneurial families from the community to create a network of sustainable tourist destinations, with a conservationist mentality. The final goal is to build trails that help national and international tourists explore and get to know better the natural abundance the place has to offer.

The first part was developed by the students as part of their final project, with three courses of the degree in interior design, where they expect the recovery of the heritage region and the redesign of the social areas like restaurants, lobby, common areas, cabins and others. The second phase of the project will begin in August where they plan to give a follow-up to the defined proposals and at the same time giving support to the small entrepreneurs in the region.

“We consider important the intervention because it helped us demystify some of the profession perspectives and humanize the practice of design. Caminos de Osa has helped with the recovery of the career’s focus by searching a contribution to society and achieve an impact in the student’s vision, where they highlighted the huge effort of the entrepreneurs in the area” said Jennifer Cob, coordinator of the intern space design career.

"In SINAES we support any initiative that help the fundamental development and professional enrichment with tools that help boost their abilities and promote the entrepreneur spirit" said Alvaro Cedeño, president of Consejo Nacional del SINAES.